user
Explain the definition of the term "heterochrony"


assistant
Heterochrony is the process in which the rates of developmental events are altered among different individuals within a species. This results in morphological changes in the form of ontogeny, or the process from embryo to adult. It is often divided into three categories: paedomorphism, where juvenile characteristics are retained into adulthood, neoteny, where the rate of development slows and fewer structures are lost, and progenesis, where an adult trait develops earlier in ontogeny.